


Summer Promise

by NoirSongbird



Series: Summer, Winter [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (of a sort), Alternate Universe - Fae, Arranged Marriage, Faerie Promises, M/M, Oral Sex, Sheith Month 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 09:21:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11964447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoirSongbird/pseuds/NoirSongbird
Summary: As a child, Shiro made a promise to Keith to marry him. Then, Keith disappeared. Years later, he returns, and reveals that he's the Prince of the Summer Court of Faerie, and Shiro's promise is magically binding.





	Summer Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my last entry for Sheith Month, for day 31: promise! God I love faerie AUs.

Shiro had dreams, sometimes.

He dreamed about a boy he’d known when he was a child - Keith, who had been in his life for as long as he could remember until he disappeared without a trace. 

In his dreams, flowers grew where Keith walked, and his eyes were as gold as the sun, and even on the darkest, coldest days, he glowed with a soft, warm light, as if he had all of summer in his soul.

In his dreams - as they had in reality, in the idle way of children who adored each other - they promised to marry when they were both old enough, and Keith pressed a brief kiss to his forehead, right where the roots of Shiro’s strange, ever-present lock of white hair were. Keith also wove a crown of flowers and placed it on Shiro’s head, and in Shiro’s dreams the flowers didn’t start to wilt until Keith vanished.

(He still had those flowers, pressed in the pages of his old copy of  _ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.)  _

As a child, growing up, Shiro had always wondered if Keith might reappear in his life one day, as swiftly as he’d vanished. But he was an adult now, a college student, and he knew his dreams for what they were. Idle, escapist fantasy, conflating the magical play of childhood with reality.

Keith was gone, no matter how much he wanted that to not be true, and magic wasn’t real, no matter how much he wished it was.

He was an adult, now, in college, working on a degree in astrophysics. He didn’t have time for childish delusions. He had far too much to do, always - even if so much of it felt like empty labor, like piling stress upon stress upon stress to achieve an obscure degree that  _ might  _ give him the  _ chance  _ to work in the field he loved. 

He barely had time for  _ visitors,  _ which was why a knock on his door was so irritating. He glared at it for a moment as if that might somehow make the person on the other end go away.

The knocking persisted, and so he stood and pulled the door open.

“Matt, did you forget...your...uh?” He blinked, startled. He didn’t actually  _ recognize  _ the person on the other side of the door, even though he seemed somehow familiar - it wasn’t someone else in the dorm, and it certainly wasn’t his roommate having forgotten his ID. The man was tall, but still about half a head shorter than Shiro, slim, and he was  _ undeniably  _ handsome. Dark hair framed a face with liquid gold eyes and a slightly shy smile. His clothes seemed...odd, just slightly anachronistic, almost medieval but not  _ quite.  _ Which really wasn’t distracting from him being gorgeous.

He also seemed to carry a faint scent of wildflowers with him - Shiro might have guessed it as a perfume, but it was even subtler than most of those were.

“Hey, Shiro,” he said. “It’s been a while.” He reached up to run a hand through his hair. “A  _ long _ while. Since we were kids, really.”

It clicked, slowly.   


“ _ Keith?” _ In all his adolescent fantasies about Keith showing back up in his life, he’d never really managed to construct exactly what growing up would do for him. The way it would take him from sweet child to frankly  _ gorgeous  _ man. “How did you even  _ find  _ me?”

“Oh, that was the easy part,” Keith said, and he ducked around Shiro and into his room, which Shiro was suddenly deeply embarrassed of. It wasn’t exactly  _ neat;  _ neither he nor Matt was picky about cleanliness. And yet, somehow, with Keith in it, the room seemed a little brighter, a little sunnier, and it was easier to ignore the papers everywhere and the clothes on the floor and the general mess of two people who weren’t concerned with impressing anybody.

Keith waved a hand in the general direction of the door, and Shiro swore he felt a warm summer breeze blow by him as it closed, entirely on its own.

“Where have you  _ been?”  _ He asked. “You just vanished, one day, without a word.”

“My dad died,” Keith said, and he said it so  _ bluntly  _ it took Shiro entirely off guard. “My...human dad, that is.” He exhaled. “So my  _ other  _ dad decided I’d spent enough time here, and it was time to go...home.” 

“Home?” Shiro frowned. “You...moved?”

“You could say that,” Keith said. “It...wasn’t easy. I missed you. I missed everything. But it was for the best.”

“But why are you back, now?” Shiro couldn’t shake his confusion. Keith seemed to consider what exactly to say for a long moment.

“I’m the Prince of the Summer Court of Faerie, and you promised to marry me. Promises are sort of a big deal to the Fair Folk, so I’m here to collect.”

_ “What?” _ Shiro asked. That was...nowhere near what he was expecting. It sounded a little delusional, were he being entirely honest - the  _ Summer Court of Faerie? _ Wasn’t that pure mythology? 

“I can prove it to you,” Keith offered.

“How?” Shiro asked. Keith’s eyes scanned over the room, and fell on the unfortunate potted cactus Matt’s sister had given him at the beginning of the year. They’d either under or over-watered it, Shiro wasn’t sure, but it definitely wasn’t looking very good.

“Watch,” Keith said, and he walked over and picked up the bowl, and there was a warm golden glow around him and it, and suddenly not only did the cactus look much better, it was in full, bright red bloom.

“Oh,” Shiro blinked, slowly, looking from the cactus to Keith and back again. It was like seeing in color for the first time in  _ years,  _ like that splash of red had somehow made everything else even brighter in comparison.

Suddenly dreams of flowers blooming under Keith’s feet didn’t seem half so strange or impossible. 

“You’re really...a fairy.” Shiro said, slowly.

“Half,” Keith corrected. “It’s...a little complicated. But I’m Fae enough.” 

“You...don’t really look like one,” Shiro said. He had a sort of...imprinted image of fairies in his head, and it was much more “Tinkerbell” and much less “Adonis.” 

“You’re expecting wings?” Keith teased lightly. “Sorry to disappoint - those usually only happen when they’re  _ really  _ necessary.” 

“Wings and uh, smaller?” Shiro said a little helplessly. Keith laughed, and shook his head.

“No, not quite,” he said. “The, um, popular image is kind of a Victorian invention - and it’s pretty convenient, I guess, since it means we can walk around without people being suspicious. Well. Mostly.” He reached up to ruffle his hair, and Shiro felt a sudden panging of pure longing. Keith had been the first person he’d ever fallen in love with, when he was just a kid, before he really knew what love  _ was. _

Now he was back and he was beautiful and perfect and  _ magical,  _ and if he’d been asking Shiro out on a date, Shiro would have tripped over himself to say yes.

Just...there was one hitch. He was asking for a little more than a  _ date. _

“I’ve never….I don’t know if I can just run off and  _ marry you,  _ Keith, that was a promise we made when we were  _ kids,”  _ Shiro said, “and I have a life, and...I’m in college, I can’t just…” Couldn’t just run off into the ether to fulfill some stupid, childish promise, even if it was to the most beautiful man he’d ever seen.

“I’m not asking you to leave everything here behind, I promise,” Keith said. “I can open doors - you can come back, just like I came here.” He took a step forward, eyes wide and pleading. “Please, Shiro, just give me a chance.” 

“Keith…” Shiro started, and then he stopped. “What... _ are  _ you asking of me, exactly?

“For now,” Keith stepped into his space, and Shiro felt his breath catch a little, “come with me. To Faerie. I’m not asking you to marry me tomorrow, but I want you to see what you could have. See what  _ we  _ could have.”

“Can...can I have some time to think about it?” Shiro asked. “Even just….going to  _ Faerie  _ is kind of a lot.”

“Okay,” Keith assented, without hesitation. “How long do you want?”

“Give me a week,” Shiro said.

“I can do that,” Keith said, and then he stepped the rest of the way into Shiro’s space and gently gripped the front of his shirt, leaning up to press a brief kiss to Shiro’s lips.

It felt like kissing all of summer - Keith was warm and soft and Shiro found himself leaning into it and wishing it would never end.

It did, though, and Keith took a step back.

“I’ll be back in a week,” he said, and then he vanished in a whirl of summer breeze.

Even after he left, Shiro’s dorm room smelled like wildflowers.

 

* * *

Shiro spent the first day trying to convince himself that Keith’s return had all been a strange dream. The problem with that was that every time he got far along in convincing himself of that, he could look over and see the blooming cactus flower. Matt spent a whole lot of time staring at it too, which Shiro really couldn’t fault him for, because he hadn’t even been there to witness it miraculously blooming in Keith’s hands.

“So, uh,” Matt broached, finally, “how’d the cactus end up flowering? I didn’t know they did that.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Shiro said, which was pretty objectively true.  _ He  _ still didn’t really believe it, all things considered.

“Try me,” Matt challenged lightly. “It can’t be that weird.”

“You’d be surprised,” Shiro said dryly.

“Come on,” Matt urged.

“There was a kid named Keith that I grew up with, but he vanished when we were both ten or so,” Shiro said, “and he showed back up last night, claiming to be the Prince of the Summer Court of Faerie, informed me that he was here to collect on a marriage promise I made as a kid, and made the cactus bloom to prove it.” The entire time, he kept his expression entirely serious.

“You’re joking,” Matt said. He waited, for a long moment, like he was expecting Shiro to admit it. “...You’re not.” He said finally. 

“Nope,” Shiro said. “I did say you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Is he pretty?” Matt asked.

“Is that  _ really  _ important?” Shiro frowned.

“You’re going to be spending your life with him, you might as well be attracted to him,” Matt pointed out. Shiro made an offended noise. “Hey, if he’s really a fairy, they carry through on their promises.”

“I can’t believe  _ you  _ know about this stuff,” Shiro said. “And yes, he’s very pretty, alright?”

“Some of us have hobbies, Shiro.” Matt said imperiously. “And good, I’m glad, you deserve a beautiful faerie prince for a husband.”

“Great,” Shiro said, “thanks for that. I’m so glad you have my best interests at heart.”

“Always!” Matt said brightly. Shiro threw a pen at him. He was pretty sure Matt still didn’t really believe him, not if he was joking about it, but at least he’d told  _ someone  _ about it, so if in a week he  _ did  _ agree to go with Keith, someone might have an idea of where he’d disappeared to.

 

* * *

As the week wore on, Shiro became more convinced that he was going to agree. He’d always wanted adventure in his life - it was why he’d studied astrophysics, because space still was the final frontier, and he wanted to go there someday. Following a handsome stranger into a magical realm sounded like exactly the kind of adventure Shiro ached for.

And then there was Keith himself. The more he thought about Keith, the more clear his childhood memories became - and he remembered a prickly, standoffish child that had slowly learned to warm up. He remembered being delighted the first time he saw Keith smile, remembered wanting to yell in triumph the first time he made Keith laugh. He remembered his best friend, and he wanted to get to know the man Keith had become.

There wasn’t much for him to leave behind, either. He had no family left, just a few friends - mostly Matt, really, and Matt kind of knew what was happening. Besides, Keith had promised he would be able to come back if he wanted. 

So he started subtly packing, putting things he wouldn’t want to leave behind into a single box that would hopefully be easy to take with him, whatever the travel method between Earth and the realm of the Fair Folk was.

He also started doing research, reading up on as many faerie legends as he could get his hands on. There wasn’t exactly endless time for him to do so, but he could browse Wikipedia and read sources and chase down stories, and he  _ did.  _ He wanted to know as much as possible, even if half of it was New Age bullshit and the other half was contradictory and old. Forewarned was forearmed, or something.

There were only so many preparations he could make, though, and eventually it came down to just waiting.

 

* * *

Keith didn’t bother knocking the second time he came. He arrived in a rush of summer breeze and wildflowers, appearing in the middle of Shiro’s dorm room and making Shiro jump.

“Sorry,” Keith said, looking genuinely abashed, and oh no, that was cute. “I didn’t mean to surprise you, just…” He reached up to muss his hair. “I guess I was excited.”

Excited. To come back to him. To hear Shiro’s answer.

“It’s fine,” Shiro said, and he stood up. 

“Did you decide?” Keith asked, and he suddenly looked deeply concerned. Shiro wondered if he’d spent the week worrying about it, the way Shiro had spent his week carefully considering his decision. 

“I want to go with you,” Shiro said. “I don’t know about...marriage, just yet, but I’ll come to Faerie with you, and we can start learning about each other.” Keith lit up, and Shiro swore the whole room literally got a little bit brighter, like Keith was his own miniature sun.

“Good,” he said. “I’m...glad, Shiro. That you’re giving me a chance.” He looked around the room. “Do you want to bring anything with you?” He asked.

“Just this,” Shiro pulled his box out from under his desk, and hefted it up. Keith frowned.

“Is that...all? Really?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Shiro said. “Just some irreplaceable stuff - family photos, a couple of books, things like that.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I live in a dorm. I don’t have much, and I’m not expecting Faerie to have WiFi.” Keith snorted, a little.

“We don’t, that’s true,” he said, and then Keith extended a hand. “Come with me?” He asked.

Shiro took a breath, and put his hand in Keith’s, and in a burst of summer breeze and warm sunlight, they were gone.

 

* * *

Shiro’s first glimpse of Faerie surprised him. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but a glowing, enchanted forest was not it. It seemed to be twilight, and he could see figures moving among the trees, and it all took his breath away. They were in front of what was definitely the tallest and grandest tree of the bunch, and Shiro could see doors and windows and balconies carved into it, and he stared in wide-eyed, almost childish awe.

“This is beautiful.” He said, a little breathlessly.

“I’m glad you think so,” Keith said. His voice drew Shiro’s attention back to him, and suddenly Shiro was breathless for an entirely different reason. He no longer looked like a slightly anachronistic human - his clothes had been replaced by something far finer and much more explicitly medieval - a white tunic edged in gold floral patterns, accented by a dramatic white cape, tan pants that could only  _ really  _ be described as “breeches,” and soft-looking brown leather boots. A circlet of blooming wildflowers rested on his brow, and his hair appeared to have bleached from black to white. He reached up to tuck a lock behind an ear, and Shiro could see that his ears were far more elfin, now, than human. “Welcome to Summer.” He started gently pulling Shiro forward, towards the door nearest to them, and Shiro went. “This is the Summer Palace. Um, home.”

The Summer Palace.

Keith really  _ was  _ a faerie prince. There was no question about that - it was obvious in the way people reacted to him, in the bows he received as soon as they stepped through the door, the way people moved out of his way. Even the way he carried himself here was different - he stood up straighter, made himself look more regal.

Shiro took in the look of the Fair Folk around them, and realized they looked almost alien. Most were tall, with skin in varying shades of purple and almost catlike features (including, Shiro noted,  _ ears) _ , and pupilless, scleraless gold eyes.

Mot people moved out of their way, but one man - young, not much older than Shiro or Keith by his looks, and oddly more human-looking than the rest, with purple skin and long white hair and eyes that had the Fae gold sclera but ordinary pupils and blue irises - strode up to them with arms spread wide. Much like Keith, his raiment was regal - a black tunic edged in silver, black breeches and boots, with a dark cape and a circlet that seemed shaped of ice.

“Little brother!” He greeted. Keith sighed, but it was a fond sort of sigh.

“Lotor,” he greeted, and he let himself be drawn into a hug.

“Who is your guest?” Lotor asked, sounding amused, as he released Keith and surveyed Shiro with interest. 

“Lotor, this is Takashi Shirogane. The human I mentioned.” Keith gestured to him, and Shiro watched Lotor’s eyebrows go up. He shifted his grip on his box of possessions so he could bow, because that seemed the appropriate greeting. “Shiro, this is Lotor, my brother and the Crown Prince of the Winter Court of Faerie.”

Shiro suspected there was a story there. Or several.

“Your Highness,” Shiro greeted formally. Lotor looked amused.

“That seems overly formal for a brother in law.” Lotor teased lightly. “I won’t keep you too long, but Father and Father will be looking for you, and they’ll want to meet your new conquest.” Lotor winked, and moved back towards the group he had come from. Keith reached back to take Shiro’s hand again and began guiding him towards a set of stairs.

“Ignore him,” he said, and Shiro realized he was blushing bright red. “He’s….dramatic.” Shiro got the feeling, from Keith’s tone, that it was a deep understatement. “And I don’t think of you as a conquest.” 

“I didn’t think you did,” Shiro offered, soothingly. Keith sighed between his teeth, and then stopped them in front of a door and pushed it open. It opened to a lavishly-furnished room, complete with a massive four-poster bed with draping vines and flowers for a canopy, several full bookshelves, and a plush-looking armchair, as well as what probably passed for a desk and a few loose empty shelves.. Shiro could also see several doors that, he suspected, led to other rooms. 

“This will be your room,” Keith said. “Mine is through that door,” he gestured to one in the center of the wall. “I, um, didn’t want to force you to share, this early on, but I  _ am  _ supposed to keep you close. Rules. Also, if you wander off without me or another faerie you might get lost, because the whole realm enjoys screwing with humans.”

“I...oh,” Shiro said, faintly. 

“It’s a lot, I know,” Keith said. He looked sheepish and a little uncomfortable, and he glanced at the connecting doors briefly. “I’ll let you get settled in,” he said, and then he slid out of Shiro’s room and into the hall. “I’m gonna go have a word with my fathers, they’ll want to know about you, and then I’ll be back.” He waved, briefly, and then strode off.

Shiro set his things on the desk and stared, taking in everything about the room. The more he looked, the clearer it became that all the furniture was grown out of the walls and the floor - it was incredible, and when he sank onto the bed, it was probably the most comfortable thing he’d ever laid on.

Quite despite himself, Shiro found himself falling asleep.

 

* * *

When he woke, there was a warm weight against his chest, and he looked down, and there was Keith, curled up against him and looking peaceful.

Oh. Shiro could get used to seeing that.

He ran his fingers through Keith’s hair, and Keith  _ purred _ in response, eyes slowly coming open and head leaning into Shiro’s hand.

“You’re awake,” he said, and he started to disentangle himself. “Sorry, just...you looked so comfortable.” 

“Wait,” Shiro said, and he slid an arm around Keith’s waist and held him in place. He spent another moment thinking about it, watching Keith’s lightly confused face, and then leaned in to kiss him. Keith groaned and rested his hands on Shiro’s shoulders, and with surprising ease, pushed Shiro onto his back and straddled him.

Oh, hell.

Shiro was not used to being with someone who could manhandle him, but Keith could hold him in place while they kissed, slow and languid and passionate, with seemingly no effort. Shiro groaned into the kiss, letting his hands move over Keith’s hips and to his ass. He squeezed, and Keith made a wonderful little moaning noise and broke the kiss.

“Let me show you how happy I am to have you here.” He stared down at Shiro, golden eyes gone molten with lust. Shiro sucked in a breath. 

“Okay,” he said, because how was he supposed to say no to that? Keith shifted down so he was between Shiro’s thighs, undoing his pants and pulling them and his boxers down over his thighs. Shiro was already half-hard, and Keith wrapped his hand around his cock and began slowly stroking it to full hardness. 

Keith’s eyes flicked from Shiro’s cock to his face, watching his reactions, and then he bent down and took his cock into his mouth. Shiro gasped, hips jerking slightly, and he watched as Keith slowly lowered himself down further, taking his cock with an ease that seemed - and probably  _ was  _ \- supernatural. 

“Holy shit, Keith,” Shiro breathed, reaching out to lightly twist his fingers in Keith’s hair. Keith slid off his cock and held his eyes for a moment, and Shiro shivered.

“Go ahead and pull,” Keith said, and then he dove back down, and Shiro yanked, and Keith  _ moaned  _ around his cock.

“Holy  _ shit, _ ” Shiro gasped. He knew he wasn’t small, but Keith was swallowing him like it was nothing at all, and his eyes were on Shiro the entire time. Shiro threw his head back and yanked on Keith’s hair again, moaning desperately as Keith’s lips pressed against the base of his cock. “Holy fucking --  _ Keith,” _ Keith swallowed around him, and Shiro couldn’t do much more than moan his name, pulling his hair again.

It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone -- he could feel his climax approaching rapidly, and started to say so, except then Keith actually got his cock into his throat and swallowed and it was  _ much  _ too late. His hips jerked up, fucking into Keith’s throat as he came, and Keith just  _ took it,  _ moaning and swallowing his come with an eagerness that blew Shiro away. He stayed on until Shiro was shuddering from overstimulation, and then pulled off and gave Shiro’s cock one last, parting lick.

“That was amazing,” Shiro gasped. Keith licked his lips, grinning up at Shiro from under half-closed lids. 

“Good,” he shifted up and forward, kissing Shiro long and slow. “It was good for me too.”

If these were the benefits, Shiro thought, maybe that promise hadn’t been so silly and childish after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr, at [noirsongbird!](http://noirsongbird.tumblr.com)
> 
> Also, there's definitely more to this AU coming - specifically a followup fic ft. Sheith and Lancelot as the primary ships, which should be a really fun story that I'm super excited for :3


End file.
